Introduction
Welcome to Step 4 of our DCOM tutorial. In this series, I will strip the mystique, the headache, and confusion from DCOM by giving you a comprehensive tutorial with a straightforward example. OK, no promises -- but I will give it a good try.
If you want to follow along with this tutorial and add code and use the Visual C++ Wizards as we go along, that's great. In fact, I very very highly recommend that, because otherwise this tutorial is a big waste of electronic ink (?). However, I follow along exactly with the tutorial myself, as I write it, and develop the code and use the Visual C++ wizards just as I say you should. The screenshots, in fact, are from my development of the files for each step! To download this already-developed code to compare with your own, simply click the 'Download the Step n Files - n KB" links at the top of each step. There's also an archive of the files for all the steps at the Questions and Answers page for this tutorial. I still recommend that you follow along with us as we go; this way, you can learn while you code. If you ever have problems along the way with this tutorial, feel free to:
Remember, our steps in developing the software in this tutorial are as follows:
- Step 1: Create the server,
HelloServ
, using the ATL COM AppWizard. - Step 2: Modify the starter files provided by AppWizard.
- Step 3: Use the New ATL Object Wizard to add a simple COM object, the
HelloWorld
object, to the server. - Step 4: Modify the
IHelloWorld
interface to include a SayHello()
method. - Step 5: Add an event method,
OnSayHello()
, to the connection point source interface, DHelloWorldEvents
. - Step 6: Build the server, and install it on the server computer.
- Step 7: Create a MFC client,
HelloCli
, which calls the server and handles the connection point event sink.
We're currently on Step 4 of this tutorial, where we finally add working code to our DCOM server. We'll add a method to the IHelloWorld
interface, and we'll call this method SayHello()
. This method will get the network name of the host that it's executing on, plus it will call a as-yet-unimplemented function Fire_OnSayHello()
, which in Step 5 we'll add as an event to our DHelloWorldEvents
event interface. This function will take a single [in] BSTR
parameter, the name of the host. Anyway, enough of my jabber; let's plunge in:
Step 4: Modify the IHelloWorld
Interface to Add the SayHello()
Method
This step of the tutorial is really short. All we will do is add one method to our ISayHello
interface, and implement it using the CHelloWorld
ATL class. Then we'll be ready to move on to Step 5! Since the user of our client would like to have some indication as to what computer on their network this code ran on, we'll add some code to get the network name of that computer. The following listing, Listing 1, shows a piece of code which you can cut-and-paste into any application you wish. This code calls the Windows GetComputerName()
function:
TCHAR szComputerName[MAX_COMPUTERNAME_LENGTH + 1];
DWORD dwSize = MAX_COMPUTERNAME_LENGTH + 1;
if (!GetComputerName(szComputerName, &dwSize))
{
AfxMessageBox(_com_error(GetLastError()).ErrorMessage(), MB_ICONSTOP);
return ;
}
Listing 1. Calling the
GetComputerName()
function.
Let's now add the IHelloWorld::SayHello()
method, and then add its code. To do this, right-click the IHelloWorld
interface icon in ClassView, and click Add Method. The Add Method to Interface dialog box appears. Type SayHello
in the Method Name box, and leave the Return Type set to HRESULT.
TIP: When doing DCOM programming and adding methods to interfaces, *always* set the Return Type of the method to HRESULT.
This allows DCOM to report network errors and other status to the client.
Anyway, getting back to what we're doing, when you're done filling in the Add Method to Interface dialog box, it should look like that shown in Figure 1, below:
Figure 1. Adding the SayHello()
method to the IHelloWorld
interface.
Click OK. When you do, the Add Method to Interface dialog will add code in all the right places to make sure that when a call to the IHelloWorld::SayHello()
method comes in over the wire, the CHelloWorld::SayHello()
member function will get called and executed. After the method has been added, ClassView should resemble that shown in Figure 2 below:
Figure 2. ClassView after the SayHello()
method has been added.
Look at Figure 2. See the highlighted item? Double-click that item in your ClassView to open up the CHelloWorld::SayHello()
member function. This function implements the IHelloWorld::SayHello()
method. Let's add some code, shown here in bold, to implement the method:
STDMETHODIMP CHelloWorld::SayHello()
{
TCHAR szComputerName[MAX_COMPUTERNAME_LENGTH + 1];
DWORD dwSize = MAX_COMPUTERNAME_LENGTH + 1;
if (!GetComputerName(szComputerName, &dwSize))
return E_FAIL;
return S_OK;
}
Listing 2. Adding code to implement the
SayHello()
method.
Notes From the Rear
Notice the line which says // TODO: Add more code here
? This tells us that we're not done implementing yet; according to the design, this method should fire off some sort of event back to the client. To see how to do this, click Next to advance to Step 5, where we finish the implementation of the server and get ready to move on to the client. To go to the previous step, Step 3, click Back below. If you have questions, try clicking Questions and Answers to go to a page which might help you.
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Questions and Answers
Dr. Brian Hart obtained his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of California, Irvine, in 2008. Under Professor David Buote, Dr. Hart researched the structure and evolution of the universe. Dr. Hart is an Astrodynamicist / Space Data Scientist with Point Solutions Group in Colorado Springs, CO, supporting Space Operations Command, United States Space Force. Dr. Hart is a Veteran of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy, having most recently served at Fort George G. Meade, MD, as a Naval Officer with a Cyber Warfare Engineer designator. Dr. Hart has previously held positions at Jacobs Engineering supporting Cheyenne Mountain/Space Force supporting tests, with USSPACECOM/J58 supporting operators using predictive AI/ML with Rhombus Power, and with SAIC supporting the Horizon 2 program at STARCOM. Dr. Hart is well known to the community for his over 150 technical publications and public speaking events. Originally from Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota, Dr. Hart lives in Colorado Springs with his Black Lab, Bruce, and likes bowling, winter sports, exploring, and swimming. Dr. Hart has a new movie coming out soon, a documentary called "Galaxy Clusters: Giants of the Universe," about his outer space research. The movie showcases the Chandra X-ray Observatory, one of NASA’s four great observatories and the world’s most powerful telescopes for detecting X-rays. The movie has been accepted for screening at the U.S. Air Force Academy ("USAFA" for short) Planetarium and will highlight how scientists use clusters of galaxies, the largest bound objects in the Universe, to learn more about the formation and evolution of the cosmos --- as well as the space telescopes used for this purpose, and the stories of the astronauts who launched them and the scientists who went before Dr. Hart in learning more about the nature of the Universe.